Created at the end of the Civil War, Arlington National Cemetery has become a part of the landscape as fixed in the national imagination as the White House or the Capitol building. The mansion at Arlington's heart, and the rolling hills on which it sits, had been the family plantation of Robert E. Lee before he joined the Confederacy; strategic to the defense of Washington, Arlington became a Union encampment, a haven for freedmen, and a pauper's cemetery for soldiers dying in the nation's bloodiest conflict. With the passage of time, new layers of meaning were added to Arlington, which would become our nation's most honored shrine. More than three hundred thousand rest in Arlington's 624 acres, representing every war the nation ever fought. Each tombstone tells a story, from the Tomb of the Unknowns, so carefully tended today, to the eternal flame at John F. Kennedy's grave to the final resting places of ordinary citizen-warriors sleeping among Arlington's rolling green hills. Their stories, and the cemetery's time-honored rituals-the horse-drawn caissons, the rifle salutes, the sounding of Taps-still speak to us all.

"This engaging history of Arlington National Cemetery ... is also the story of America's maturation through death and war ... An editor and journalist, [Poole] is an adroit sketcher of historical events, but even more of character."-Economist

About the Author
Robert M. Poole is an editor and writer whose assignments for Smithsonian and National Geographic have taken him around the world. He is the author of Explorers House:National Georgraphic and the World It Made, and is a contributing editor at Smithsonian. Poole has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Preservation.

Reviews
Vivid, compelling, filled with rich and unexpected detail. Geoffrey C. Ward, author of The Civil War Gripping and often deeply moving, On Hallowed Ground chronicles both the evolution of our national cemetery and the profound ways in which treatment of the war dead reflects a nation's soul. Caroline Alexander, author of The Endurance A memorable combination of historical research, firsthand reporting, and sensitive writing. Ernest B. Furguson, author of Freedom Rising Robert M. Poole not only captures the history of a venerable American institution but with it the politics of commemoration and reconciliation. Paul Dickson, coauthor of The Bonus Army Robert Poole has coupled superb storytelling with meticulous research and produced a gem. Robert Timberg, author of The Nightingale's Song



Book Information
ISBN 9780802715494
Author Robert M. Poole
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Walker & Co
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Weight(grams) 366g